“UR allowed to rant. In fact, as a therapist I say let it all out. Not good to hold it in.”

Keselowski immediately hit her back, tweeting, “Good 2 know!”

NASCAR fan @RileyMaracle61 wanted to know if Keselowski had lost all respect for Jeff Gordon after Gordon retaliated against Clint Bowyer—the source, ironically, of Keselowski’s rant.

“Absolutely not. He’s a legend in the sport,” Keselowski tweeted.

Three days later, Keselowski fan @Susan29Fan tweeted this to her favorite driver:

“Don’t know how u do it. My stomach is in knots hoping you’ll win it all this weekend!”

Keselowski immediately responded, tweeting, “Beer helps.”

Whether he’s responding to a question or comment from fans or retweeting an interesting story written by someone in the media, Keselowski is constantly in touch with NASCAR fans and nearly everyone connected with the sport.

With more than 320,000 Twitter followers, no NASCAR driver is more engaging and more in tune with fans and issues facing the sport than Keselowski.

The question as he embarks on his first Sprint Cup championship is, how far will fans follow him?

By most accounts, the fun-loving, personable and witty Keselowski should be on the verge of becoming one of NASCAR’s most popular drivers and a big fan favorite.

NASCAR has one of the most passionate and loyal fan bases in all of sports.

It also is one of the most fickle.

To earn the affection of a large segment of NACAR Nation, you either have to do something extraordinary or have a famous last name.

And sometimes, not even that is enough.

Some drivers who have been exceptional and seemingly done all the right things are hated by many fans. Others who have the same hard edge or colorful personality or appealing style as popular drivers before them can’t seem to earn the same allegiance.

They won too much too soon. They dominated, pushing more popular drivers to the curb. And they did it with style and class, which is apparently the wrong way to become a NASCAR star.

Other drivers became the anti-Gordon, pushing and shoving their way to the front and not caring whom they ran over or ticked off to get to the top. They did it with raw emotion and an old-school, rough-and-tumble style, and just when you thought they were being colorful, fans turned on them for being bad.

Drivers like Tony Stewart, Kevin Harvick and Kyle Busch developed the bad-boy images that many fans say they want and the sport needs. Yet, for some reason, they haven’t won fans over either.

So what do NASCAR fans want in a driver?

When Dale Earnhardt, the seven-time champion and ultra-popular legend who stirred the masses, died in 2001, a legion of fans left with him. And for the past 11 years, no one has been able to fill that void.

His son has been NASCAR’s most popular driver the past 10 years, but he has left his huge fan base largely unfulfilled.

The masses are starving for someone new to rally around. NASCAR needs a fresh face and a new star.

Maybe he is about to step forward.

Is Brad Keselowski that guy?

Keselowski is the first driver in years who seems to have all the qualities that fans say they are looking for. He is part Earnhardt Sr., part Darrell Waltrip, with a bit of Rusty Wallace and Earnhardt Jr. mixed in as well.

He already has demonstrated the hard-charging aggressive style of drivers like Earnhardt. He proved right away that’s he’s willing to crumple sheet metal, rub fenders and ruffle the feathers of NASCAR’s biggest stars to win.

But, like Earnhardt, Waltrip and Wallace, he quickly matured and developed into a smart racer who knows when to pick his spots and when to use a more calculated, cunning approach.

He made so many enemies early in his career—Busch, Harvick, Denny Hamlin, Carl Edwards—that for a brief time he was becoming one of the sport’s most hated drivers. But like other championship drivers, he quickly calmed down and smoothed out the rough edges and figured out that sometimes earning respect is more important than collecting trophies. He now has a slew of both.

Along the way, he has shown the type of outgoing and outspoken personality that made drivers like Waltrip and Wallace popular. He is witty, thoughtful and has an opinion about almost everything, and he’s not afraid to share it, no matter how unpopular or whom he ticks off. He’s taken on NASCAR and some of the sport’s biggest issues, but does it in a constructive, positive manner.

And though he has driven to the top in just three short years, Keselowski has paid his dues. Unlike some of the sport’s biggest stars, he wasn’t handed a competitive Cup ride right away.

The son of a racing family that nearly went broke trying to support him, he had to scratch and claw for everything he got and didn’t immediately jump in a fast car and start winning races.

He had to earn it, working his way from Midwestern short tracks to NASCAR trucks and on to the Nationwide Series, where Earnhardt Jr. took a chance on him.

Then, with no Cup rides available, he gambled with James Finch’s underfunded Phoenix Racing and turned heads by winning one of the most exciting races in recent memory at Talladega Superspeedway.

Though he had garnered the attention of Hendrick Motorsports and may have landed a ride there in time, he took another gamble in 2009, joining Penske Racing and taking a backseat to former Cup champion Kurt Busch.

Now, in just three short years, he is Roger Penske’s lead driver and on the verge of delivering The Captain’s first Cup title. But, by no means, did it come easy.

“There was plenty of moments where I thought I wasn't going to make it. But, good Lord willing, I caught the opportunities and was able to capitalize on them and progress,” he says. “I am a product of a lot of breaks from a lot of different people.”

And if NASCAR’s largest fan base needs another reason to support Keselowski, it is this: He once raced for Earnhardt Jr., the sport’s most popular driver, and is still close friends with the driver who gave him one of his big breaks.

In a sense, they share similar traits, a similar upbringing and a similar passion for the sport and its fans.

“He says stuff that’s true to himself,” Keselowski says of Earnhardt Jr. “And that’s why I think we respect each other, because he knows I do the same.”

Through a meteoric rise to the top, Keselowski has remained true to himself, developed an engaging personality and focused on things that are important to not only him and his team but to fans and the sport.

But perhaps more importantly, he cares.

"He cares about the sport and he cares about the fans," Penske says of Keselowski.